How Much Water Does Guanacaste Have? Nobody knows.

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  • As climate conditions worsen, the country needs action to regulate water use and prepare for the next drought.

Costa Rica currently lacks the ability to measure how much water it diverts from its aquifers. According to estimates, the country wastes about half of its water due to leaks, damaged and outdated infrastructure and illegal connections.

Without a way to control how much water is removed from aquifers, it’s impossible to prevent damage to them, including salinization, which already is occurring at two of Guanacaste’s aquifers, Huacas-Tamarindo and Brasilito-Potrero.

These problems have been occurring for years. The 2008 State of the Nation report cited both a lack of control of water use and degradation of aquifers as ongoing issues.

Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute President Yamileth Astorga warns that without better control, there will be no awareness about water consumption and scarcity.

“Those who are able take water from an already stressed aquifer with no concern for the consequences,” she said. “I’m talking about communities, hotels, real estate developments – everyone.”

Faced with shortages in the country’s Northern Pacific region, the government initiated the Northern Pacific Integral Program to Supply Water to Guanacaste, or PIAAG, which among other things aims to address the aquifer situation through a System of Real-Time Monitoring of Subterranean Water, or SIMASTIR.

Officials will use this system to monitor how much water aquifers have as well as levels of salinity. It also will help track leaks and address the problem of wasted water.

According to the Environment Ministry’s Director of Water José Miguel Zeledón, “When you study the problem of water in the country you realize there is no appropriate management, and there’s not a culture to do so. It’s uncontrolled and there are no data,” he said.

Freshwater Threats

Las fuentes se han cerrado: el Garden Plaza en Tamarindo clausuró sus fuentes para disminuir el gasto de agua.

According to Astorga, salinization of wells is exacerbated by an increasing number of droughts in recent years. In Santa Cruz, the Huacas-Tamarindo and Brasilito-Potrero aquifers already are saline.

“As freshwater is removed from an aquifer it creates pressure that begins to draw water from the ocean, salinizing the well,” said Sandra Arredondo, a hydrology engineer at the United Nations Office for Project Services.

Although desalinization is possible, the process is lengthy and costly. Methods include placing physical barriers, walls that function as levies to hold back saltwater, and artificially replenishing aquifers with freshwater. But these efforts can take years.

To prevent salinization, the PIAAG outlines creation of both SIMASTIR and a National System of Information for the Integrated Management of Water Resources, or SINIGIRH.

SINIGIRH is a technology platform that consolidates information related to water and its administration. It allows anyone to consult it to find out the status of water in each community.

But these are no small projects. SINIGIRH requires installation of computers and software, training of personnel and digitalization of reams of documents. Some 250,000 pages of documents must be uploaded to a computer by Aug. 31, for example.

SIMASTIR also has several elements. Each well requires seven components to ensure a meter functions properly. Installation of each meter requires clearing the well, installing equipment and pumps, and testing to guarantee an installation is adequate. This must be carried out at each well that is to be measured, a total of 56 in Guanacaste alone.

While SIMASTIR’s process is 80 percent complete, the clock is running. This proyect had a planned Aug. 1 deadline and there is no evidence that it has concluded or no. The budget for this year alone is $1.7 billion ($3.1 million) for SIMASTIR, and $332 million ($613,000) for SINIGIRH.

The projects aim to both determine how much water is lost to infrastructure problems and to that amount. The program Reducción del agua no contabilizada y mejoramiento de la eficiencia energética (RANC-EE) hopes to reduce by 17 percent the amount of lost water across the country.

This particular program, approved in 2015, calls for the replacement of 616 kilometers of tubing in all of Costa Rica, as well as the installation of 700 meters and 14,000 pieces of equipment to repair micro-leaks. Another of its objectives is to eliminate illegal connections that attribute to water loss. In Guanacaste, Liberia and Nicoya will benefit from this program.

In face of the water crisis, these projects spearhead the Government’s efforts to seal the fissures from where water leaks, water that could save Guanacaste, and the country, in the future. It’s only a matter of waiting for the next drought to see whether they are enough to change the culture of a country, with an allegedly ecological discourse, that lets go of vital liters that could hundreds of save families and pastures.